You cannot solve the problems of your existence with superficial pursuits that perpetuate the life you already know. The existential cause of deep suffering is a profound life spent without examination or challenge. The world thrives on keeping where you are, as that is where it knows how to reach you and act on your needs. The world has a proprietary interest in stunting your growth. Because of them, you are never able to go after what they want in life. You will never ascend to the profound truth of your identity.

It is impossible to know what you are capable of when the most important aspects of your life have been derived from people who came long before you or happen to hold greater influence. Under such tightly controlled conditions of self-expression such as the exceptional individual faces today, many who would otherwise find themselves on the path to leadership and original thought cannot develop the bravery needed for an expanded perspective. Only disruption can rock them now from the life to which they’ve grown attached. Only inspiration can show them what they did not know they were missing.

A single catalyst can create a domino effect of changes that will last with them for life. The strangeness of having all that one knows shaken from its ordinary structure creates a call to adventure outward, physically, into the world outside present perceptions. In journeying with the body, an exceptional mind is brought, necessarily, into higher levels of thinking about itself and everything else. All levels of progress originate in change. The prime mover may be forceful, or it may be painful. One way or another, it will be something powerful enough to make you move from where you have settled.

The path of your conventional life is likely so familiar now that you no longer even notice its presence. It blends into the walls, molding to the substructure of you operational mind. You know how, when, and why to go to school or work, but they are the reasons the conventional identities around you allowed. It never had to be this way. It can be any other way you can imagine. The 9-to-5 workweek is an illusion. Your studies are mostly arbitrary and irrelevant. They do not display the principles of productivity or learning. Exceptional actors push themselves out of these and many other stifling patterns for living.

To walk away from the path of the follower brings a personal and social sacrifice. The world will not automatically support you. They won’t even know how to categorize you. The previous way you built your life is no longer compatible with what you are quickly becoming. The longing for more will continue to carry you past familiarity, no matter what you lose along the way. A fundamental identity shift never changes just one aspect of your life. The entire structure by which you live can crash and burn. The older you get, the more you have invested in a lifestyle structure, and the stronger your disruption needs to be.

Anyone who rebels, not matter how crude the manner, is leading in their own way. They already know they don’t want what the rest of the world would choose for them. With proper mentorship though, they could hone their potent instincts and apply them to something important, something with impact and longevity. They must get over their loner mentality, always seeing themselves as alone against the world. There are experienced warriors and wanderers out there who could light the way if only the would-be hero would open his mind to the possibility of their leadership.

The world keeps turning on the axis it is on because people become stuck in lifestyle loops that require them to address the same needs time and again without improvement. If the idea of higher level goals never enters their minds, they do not move on from what they know. Do not continue chasing your tail another day of your life. Anytime your mind desires something to be different than it is, there is a window to greatness available.

Heroes learn to break away from the narratives of their cultures to follow what genuinely interests them. The hero must place his development as his highest priority above all other glory. The world will work against him in this regard. Parents do not teach their offspring the values of self-knowledge. Schools have their curriculum decided by machine-minded bureaucrats. Advertisers profit by appealing to gluttonous and lustful demands. We all remain unfulfilled, even when we get what we thought we wanted.

When you see that you are stuck on a track in your life that you never chose to ride on, look for the disrupting events that can enter your world at any time. They beautiful chaos of the universe ensures that there is always something unexpectable happening somewhere near you. The disruption may be positive or negative. It will be the starting point for a new narrative pathway.

Every exceptional person needs to break out of their ordinary life before they can even begin to become all of which they are capable. Look for the disruptions to the normal flow of your life and welcome them eagerly.